January 09, 2012

Delonte West: I'm Banned from White House: When the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks meet President Barack Obama at the White House Monday, Delonte West won't be with his teammates, he told a local reporter. "I'm banned from going to the White House," he said. "That's what happens when you make bad decisions in your life. You can't go to the White House." West pleaded guilty to weapons charges after a 2009 traffic stop in which he was found to be carrying a Remington 870, 9mm Beretta pistol and 357 Magnum in a guitar case.

The idea of pro sports teams going to the White House should be stopped anyways. It used to be cute decades ago, but now it's stupid. With Obama apparently hosting secret "Alice In Wonderland" overpriced/costly Halloween parties, to this? Quit acting like a drooling fan and start acting like the leader of a economically-struggling country.

No, the "secret" party held to publicize Tim Burton and Johnny Depp that only adds to the Obama's excessive lifestyle that doesn't jibe with his bullshit "Everyone has to sacrifice" speeches to the mases. Obama and his wife like to schmooze with A-listers and spend wads of taxpayer money at a time when he should cut back and lead by example rather than take advantage of gullible Americans.

No, I'm good with it right here. My original comment was about doing away with the current President stopping the ridiculous show of flaunting all over well-to-do pro athletes. And I'm talking about the current President, not "all previous Presidents". This country is still in crisis for numerous reasons, and I personally would like to see him back up his B.S. words with action. He and his wife live the high life while the country he leads struggles, but he still is able to spin things in a way that makes many forget he's nothing more than another politician.

Did it ever occur to you the current president is doing just what previous presidents did, except the sources you choose to get your news from report on it all the time and act like it's a major controversy or is somehow stopping him from doing his job? Instead of coming off like an insight, stuff like this comes off as the bleating of sheep.

Every president has engaged in countless ceremonial functions like the Mavericks gathering. Every president takes vacations. Neither of them matters at all except to the professional manufacturers of outrage on the other side.

In 1969, Richard Nixon attended the Texas-Arkansas football game in Fayetteville, Ark. He flew in for the occasion along with a gaggle of staffers...and a U.S. Representative named George H.W. Bush.

Texas eventually won that regular season game, and afterwards was personally presented with a plaque by Nixon proclaiming them to be National Champions - BEFORE any of the year-end bowl games had been played!

Nixon's personal involvement in this sporting spectacle caused howls of dismay from all quarters for a long time to come, including a comment from one prominent Republican, as follows:

"How could Nixon know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973?"

The person who uttered that line was none other than Joe Paterno.

Historical footnote: the game that Nixon took such a fervent interest in was the last American collegiate sporting event of major significance to be played between two all-white teams.

Whatever Obama's doing that you don't like, when it comes to mixing his office with sports and sleaze, he is nowhere close to being in the same league with the bad boys.

I'm thankful I can always revert to all of you to let me know exactly what should be believed and what shouldn't.

Again, I'll say it. This country TODAY, RIGHT NOW is in financial ruin, and it's getting worse. The president TODAY, along with his wife (whom he, as a leader of the free world, can't seem to control) would rather live the life of rock stars than try to live by the means of the people he, as president, is always asking to "tighten their belts." These lavish parties that this president throws, while finding money for education and floundering Social Security, etc., are somehow acceptable because they have the PR sense to say it's "for the children of D.C." or "for the children of military families." Those statements back many critics off. In the meantime it's just another excuse to spend money like it's water and for the wife and kids to hob-nob with the elite like Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, etc.

The wife of the president reportedly spends over $10 million in vacations in a year? How does that work and equate to Americans working towards the answer to the debt crisis in tough economic times? And then people wonder why the president's answer to any problem in his administration is to throw millions and billions at it, thinking it will go away? How's that working for him OR you?

When the country is prosperous and and everything is fantastic, then sure, I'm not going to be quick to criticize this type of behavior from a president. But TODAY, it's not right. Plain and simple.

If any of you choose to blindly follow the president or, for that fact, practically any politician, then by all means, go ahead. I know they count on that support to keep them living the life they enjoy.

Yes, this is a rant that, at this point, does NOT belong on this site, but it's a sore point with me. Posting White House/Obama crap as topics will often lead to this.

"The wife of the president reportedly spends over $10 million in vacations in a year?[citation needed]"

If any of you choose to blindly follow the president or, for that fact, practically any politician, then by all means, go ahead. I know they count on that support to keep them living the life they enjoy.

Well tell me, then - how do you feel about state university college coaches being the highest paid employees in their state, often by a staggering amount? So they can cavort in strip clubs, as Alabama's Mike Price was caught doing?

How do you feel about ordinary run of the mill pro athletes routinely making millions of dollars a year while contributing nothing significant or meaningful to the core status of the human condition while hard working people lose their homes and their jobs?

Those things bother me a lot, regardless of whether this country is running a surplus or a deficit, or whether the unemployment rate is 4% or 9%.

If you single out the President for your anger in regard to the sin of excess in contrast to our troubled times without mentioning the obscene monetary excesses to be found in collegiate and pro sports - and the financial services sector, which you also don't mention - then the issue really isn't about the money and the lifestyle.

You just hate the President, pure and simple. You are certainly entitled to that outlook, and you are no doubt not the only person on this site who shares that sentiment. But today, in this discussion, you are unique in your inability to manage your viewpoint and contribute to the topic in a balanced way, and in your drive to bring your pointed line of dialogue to the doorstep of our sports site in the first place.

I don't agree that "Posting White House/Obama crap as topics will often lead to this." On the contrary, I think that SpoFi members typically show a great deal of restraint when the discussion veers toward politics, and generally don't make comments that would push a discussion over the line toward the type of venting that exists elsewhere in bountiful supply.

Don't blame us for your choice to crap on this discussion. We were discussing Obama welcoming the Mavs.

The wife of the president reportedly spends over $10 million in vacations in a year?

These claims are bullshit, Dyams. They're coming from tabloid sources like the National Enquirer, Daily Mail and partisan right-wing hacks, and they're based on wildly inflated numbers that claim things like the cost of Air Force One and military aircraft, the cost of Secret Service personnel and other security, as personal expenses.

Presidents and first ladies have always traveled abroad. The Obamas spend personal money on personal expenses, like when they extend a diplomatic trip with a private stay at an expensive hotel. The rest is paid for by the U.S., because they're engaged in diplomacy and as a country, we'd generally prefer for our leaders and their wives not to get assassinated.

I know you don't want to talk about other presidents, because that would require you to articulate a consistent position. But do you have any idea how many times President Bush flew to Crawford? He broke a record for presidential vacations -- during a time when the U.S. was spending more than a trillion of borrowed money to fight two wars. The same crisis excuse you're using now could have been used then by left-wing hacks to bash the Bushes.

In fact, it was: "President Bush took 149 trips to Camp David, 77 visits to his Crawford ranch, and 11 trips to his father's Kennebunkport mansion. Since Air Force One reportedly cost $56,800 per hour to operate in 2004 (which Bush used to get to Crawford), and the plane can travel up to 630 miles per hour, it cost at least $259,657 to get the 2,880 miles to Crawford and back, each time Bush went, or roughly $20 million dollars just for taking the plane on the Crawford trips alone. Add in the cost of putting up Secret Service and other staff for the ranch trips, as well as the Kennebunkport and Camp David trips, and you get, well, a lot."

So there you go. The president spent $56K an hour to fly places. It's an outrage!

I think it has to be pretty hard to hate Barack Obama, he's a pretty likable guy, but I can understand it because people can hate him for his politcal stances. The hate for Michelle Obama just blows my mind.

Dyams, if you just would have stopped here:

The idea of pro sports teams going to the White House should be stopped anyways. It used to be cute decades ago, but now it's stupid.

The president TODAY, along with his wife (whom he, as a leader of the free world, can't seem to control)

Wow.

You make it sound like she's going on some pet-killing rampage.
Or that she's drunk-dialling late night talk shows and spilling secrets about their sex life.
Or that she's calling up QVC and buying every available M.I Hummel figurine on sale.

Control? How deep are your gender relationship issues?

The wife of the president reportedly spends over $10 million in vacations in a year?